Erica Enders’ drive for a fifth NHRA Pro Stock world championship took another step closer Saturday at the Nevada Nationals.

Enders, who won world titles in 2014-15 and 2019-20, came into this weekend with a 165-point lead over her Elite Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield.

Brittany Force won NHRA’s Top Fuel world championship in 2017. Now, she is trying to rally to capture world crown No. 2 in 2022.

Force entered the Nevada Nationals this weekend in second place in the points standings – 82 points behind leader Justin Ashley.

With just two races left in NHRA’s 2022 Countdown to the Championship, nitro Funny Car driver Robert Hight knows every point counts.

Hight entered the Nevada Nationals this weekend as the points leader but with just a slim 10-point advantage over Ron Capps.

If this were the old days of Monday Night Football, former NFL analyst "Dandy" Don Meredith would be singing, "turn out the lights, the party's over."

Meredith, who once played for Texas' revered Dallas Cowboys, used to sing the old Willie Nelson song when one team had run roughshod over the other, and a comeback was improbable.

That's pretty much the scene with the Pro Stock battle coming into this weekend's NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas.

Predictable phrases such as four-ace hand, Lady Luck, and rolling the dice, and words such as jackpot, odds, bet, and gamble are yawners in Las Vegas previews and press releases. But so are some of the trite, unimaginative remarks from drivers as the Countdown to the Championship is supposed to be generating excitement with this race and the Nov. 11-13 Finals at Pomona, Calif. So here’s our Top 10 List of What Not To Bother Saying Anymore When You’re In A Title Hunt:

Kyle Koretsky loves racing at the Texas Motorplex, and the only thing he probably loves more... is leaving. The feeling has little to do with the facility and more with an incident that happened some 17 years ago.

Koretsky was a student at Council Rock North High School, located in Bucks County, Pa., about 25 miles north of Philadelphia when his dad Kenny was involved in one of the most horrific accidents ever in NHRA.

During Friday evening qualifying at the 2005 NHRA FallNationals, Bruce Allen, who left the line significantly ahead of Kenny, had his Pontiac inexplicably turn left and cross the centerline on two wheels. With nowhere to go, Kenny drove right through the center of Allen's car, breaking it in two. Allen's engine went right into Kenny's windshield. When the smoke cleared, Allen had suffered a concussion and Kenny a bruised heart.

Brittany Force made the quickest run in each qualifying session on Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, powering to the provisional No. 1 position in Top Fuel at the 22nd annual NHRA Nevada Nationals. 

Robert Hight (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 21st event in the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season and the fifth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. 

Veteran small tire racer Daniel Pharris came up big on the second day of qualifying for the No Mercy 13 drag radial event on Thursday evening at South Georgia Motorsports Park outside of Valdosta, Ga.

Pharris reeled off a 3.562 elapsed time at 207.56 miles per hour to land in the top spot of Radial vs. The World qualifying on Thursday evening.

Bill Windham has been around drag racing for a while. During this time, he learned firsthand that the best programs take time to develop. 

The thought of bringing a viable Nostalgia Funny Car series (AA/FC) to the NHRA Camping World Drag racing Series is one Windham has been working on behind the scenes. This weekend, the NHRA heads to Las Vegas for the NHRA Nevada Nationals and part of the show will be the inaugural installment of the Redline Oil Legends Nitro Series. 

“I always felt like these cars belonged on the big stage with some of the cars that currently run at the national events,” Windham said. “So we’ve been running our own events, like some of the heritage races. A couple of guys tried to put a series together called the United Nitro Funny Cars, and I have two friends of mine that are not racers, but they’re just huge fans of these cars and they approached me with the idea about the possibility of an approaching the NHRA and talking about putting something together.

Whitney Houston once sang about how she believed the children are the future. These days, Justin Lamb, a five-time NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series champion, carries the same tune. 

Lamb is competing at the NHRA Nevada Nationals with his Stock and Super Stock entries. 
 
"Racing is very seldom 'all good' or 'all bad.' We've had some challenges this year, but we've also had some great rewards," said Lamb, who also claimed a pair of Super Stock semifinal finishes at the double-divisional in Phoenix this season.